Cooking is often referred to as an art, not only because of the combination of ingredients that go into a particular recipe, but also due to the skill necessary for proper application and infusion of varying levels of heat over a given period of time throughout the different phases of the food preparation process. Traditional cookware appliances, such as ovens (microwave ovens being an exception), grills, heat lamps and stoves, all utilize the thermodynamic process of conduction to transfer heat from the outer surface of the food item to its interior. This is generally true regardless of the type of heat source used to heat the surface of the food, be it a radiation heat source (i.e. a heat lamp), conduction heat source (i.e. a stovetop), or a convection heat source (i.e. a convection oven or a food dehydrator).
The use of thermometers or other temperature sensors to monitor and control the cooking process is well known. A common thermometer used to monitor and control the cooking process is a probe-type or contact thermometer which is inserted directly into the food item to obtain a temperature of the interior of the food item. Such thermometers are undesirable for use with cookware/servingware objects that have a lid as the use of a probe-type thermometer requires removal of the lid each time a temperature reading is taken. A number of cookware-associated non-contact thermometers have been developed that are attached to, or incorporated into, cookware objects such as pots and pans. For example, my invention disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/833,356, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, provides a means of obtaining consistent and accurate measurement and control of the temperature of a cookware object, such as a pot or pan, by embedding a temperature sensor within a heatable portion of an object, such as within a tunnel through the base of the pot or pan. The temperature sensor is connected to an RFID tag located apart from the heatable portion of the pot or pan. The RFID tag acts as a transmitter (and sometimes as receiver) to communicate with a reader/writer located in a cook-top for heating the object, providing temperature information and other information regarding the object (such as heating characteristics) to the cook-top. The temperature information and the heating information are used by the cook-top to control the temperature of the object.
My prior invention in which the temperature sensor is embedded within a tunnel in the base, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/833,356, and in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/148,802 filed Jun. 9, 2005 (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety), provides a highly effective way of regulating temperature during cooking. This allows a selected cooking temperature to be maintained while cooking on a stovetop. The cooking temperature can be programmed into the stovetop in the manner described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,919 (the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference), or the temperature can be selected manually (as is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,919). Notwithstanding, although a desired cooking temperature may be manually selected by the cook, stovetop control interfaces of the prior art do not provide the cook any indication of the actual temperature that is being selected. For example, referring to FIG. 1, a dial-type stovetop control interface of the prior art is shown. Similar control interfaces are common on all types of stovetops, including induction, gas, electric, radiant, halogen, etc. The control interface shown in FIG. 1 allows the cook to select a temperature based upon a quantitative descriptor such as “simmer”, “low”, “medium”, or “high”. Turning the knob to “medium” may always heat the pan to 120 degrees C (and this may in fact be preprogrammed into the stovetop, such as in the manner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,919), but unless the cook has measured the temperature with his/her own thermometer, he/she has no way of knowing the exact temperature. This is because the quantitative descriptors (i.e. “simmer”, “low”, “medium”, or “high”) are arbitrarily matched to specific temperatures by the stovetop manufactures. Thus, “med” on one stovetop may be 120C, while on another stovetop, it will be 150C. Also, these arbitrary quantitative temperature descriptors may vary depending upon the type of stovetop, i.e. induction, gas, electric, radiant, etc., due to the fact that the maximum heat that may be generated by each source will vary (e.g. gas 1300C, radiant 800C). Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a stovetop temperature control interface that allows the cook to know the exact temperature that is manually being selected.
Furthermore, stovetop recipes traditionally utilize the same arbitrary quantitative descriptors (i.e. “simmer”, “low”, “medium”, or “high”) as are used on stovetops. Thus, due to the large degree of variance between different brands of stovetops and sources of heat (i.e. induction, gas, electric, etc.), as well as variations due to different altitudes, the recipes must be altered (or the cooks must know to vary the temperature) to avoid the dishes being improperly cooked. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a method of stovetop cooking that provides more consistent results regardless of the stovetop being used and the altitude at which a dish is prepared.